Oskaloosa Emergency Responders Work To Save Family Pet

Oskaloosa emergency responders work to save the life of a family pet Tuesday night. They performed CPR and used oxygen in an attempt to revive the family dog.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The call of smoke at a residence located at 801 South 6th went out around 11:20 pm Tuesday.

When firefighters arrived on the scene, there was a lot of smoke coming from the roof vents of the home.

Firefighters then proceeded into the home to extinguish the fire, with one family pet being removed from the residence. Rescue workers did CPR on the family dog, but were unsuccessful in saving its life.

Oskaloosa Fire Chief Mark Neff said that his crews were battling more than fire. Mother Nature was making things worse with the frigid temps, reaching down to 2 degrees with windchill values dipping down to a negative 15 degrees.

The extreme cold was freezing the firefighter’s air-packs, so crews rotated into vehicles to thaw out those packs. While that group of firefighters thawed out, a fresh group of firefighters remade entry into the home.

The home’s resident was at work when the fire broke out.

Oskaloosa Fire Department was assisted at the scene by Mahaska County Emergency Management, along with the Oskaloosa Police Department and Mahaska Health Partnership Emergency Services.